The world’s largest Christmas tree? Why, yes, I have seen it… Having spent the night in our hotel in the countryside, just outside of Perugia, we made our way to Gubbio. No, I hadn’t heard of it either! I had, however, seen pictures on Instagram of the world’s largest Christmas tree.
The tree, which has now entered the Guinness Book of Records, was built in 1981 on Mount Ingino, which soars behind the town of Gubbio. It is made up of approximately 700 lights of various types and colours, is over 750 metres high and occupies an area of 130,000 square metres (information from the Umbrian tourist board).
We made our way there, with a plan to do a flying visit. On the way there though, I discovered that there is a lift to the top of Mount Ingino. “Well, I’m sure there’ll be an amazing view”, I exclaimed light-heartedly. Totally forgetting that I have a terrible fear of heights! The lift is called the bird cage, after the shape of the lift that is designed to carry one to two people (see the picture above). We left the car in pursuit of the infamous lift, admiring the beautiful buildings along the way. They were noticeably different to those which I was used to seeing in Lazio. The buildings here are made of calcareous stone. The town’s well-preserved buildings date back to the 14th and 15th century and were just beautiful.
When we arrived at the funivia (the bird cage station), we were met with a ginormous queue. It took about two hours or more to reach the front of the queue. As we began to approach it, I started to question whether we should have bought tickets in advance. As we moved forward in the line, more and more people began to ask the same question as me. However, the ticket office was now closed. Only in Italy! Ha ha! It transpires that more than 90% of the queue needed to buy tickets but there was nobody to sell the tickets. Just two workers overseeing the safe embarkation and disembarkation of the lift. As you can imagine, people were very happy to express their thoughts and feelings on this matter. It was chaos! As a result the 10% with tickets made their way forwards leap-frogging everyone that had waited for the past two hours, adding further insult to injury. Eventually, the 10% were accommodated and the ticket office opened back up just in time. A total riot was minutes from breaking out. Having had a very slow start to the day and a leisurely breakfast, it was becoming clear that the main event for today was going to be Gubbio. If we had to queue for another two hours to get down, the whole day would be done for.
With tickets in hand, I made my way to the front of the queue, where Nadia was waiting, holding our place in the line and we hopped inside the tiny bird cage lift. Within seconds, I immediately remembered why I don’t engage with skiing or anything that involves going on contraptions dangling by a cable at height!! Nadia was far braver and enthusiastic than me, moving around and snapping photos and video of our ascent. I, on the other hand was far less engaged in the process. Clinging desperately to the bar which connected us to the cable, I felt brave in occasionally opening my eyes to take in the view. I tried to avoid looking down and having looked at the view, it only drew further attention to just how flipping high up we were! It was an amazing view though. I will give them that.
As we arrived at the top, I was so relieved to get my feet on solid ground! And wow, what a view. I just couldn’t believe how high up we were, what a beautiful clear day it was and just how lucky I was to be there. I happily snapped and filmed away until it dawned on me that what goes up must come down. I was going to have to get back in the birdcage at some point… Walking down was not an option, it would be dark before getting to Assisi and we would lose a lot of time in doing so. I was going to have to suck it up.
In the meantime, we visited the Basilica di Sant’Ubaldo, home of the Gubbio “Ceri” (click the link below to find out more) as well as the body of the patron saint.
The icing on the cake though was the bar perched at the top of the mountain. Indulging in a Spritz on a glorious December day in an incredibly beautiful place, while my compatriots back in the UK worked a normal day under grey skies, only made me more grateful for my new life and new country.
Fortunately, the process to descend the mountain was much smoother and in no time we were headed for the next-stop on our whirlwind tour- Assisi.
Have you ever been to Gubbio? Did you know about the Christmas tree? Let me know below!